The island of Taiwan is tapping into the Asian love of gaming with the debut of its first e-Stadium, a project of U.S. game publisher Blizzard, reports the South China Morning Post.
The first event scheduled for the 250-seat e-Stadium is the Overwatch Pacific Championship, a 13-week tournament featuring eight teams from Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Thailand and Taiwan. They will vie for total prizes valued at HK$2.1 million (US$273,000).
“Taiwan has a good foundation for developing e-Sports,” said Eddy Meng, managing director of Blizzard’s operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. “If you look at viewership numbers on e-ports streaming platform Twitch, Taiwan is always in the top three to five markets globally. There’s just a lot of interest here.”
Twitch reports that about 4.5 million islanders, or one-fifth of the population, watch eSports every month. Worldwide, according to a research by marketing firm Newzoo, almost 300 million people around the globe watched eSports regularly in 2016. The industry is expected to generate US$696 million this year.
“There will be a lot of benefits if the Taiwanese government makes e-Sports an official sport like in China and South Korea,” Meng said. “Companies who sponsor sports are given tax-deductible benefits, so making eSports a legit sport would lead to much more investment money. It would also make securing visa for foreign players easier, and perhaps let Taiwanese pros be exempt from army duty.”
